There
are times in life where you are at a loss to describe something, or try to
contain something, Illayaraja to me is that something. I am sure that many out
there have heard and are ardent fans of the Mastero. I have never had the
chance to meet him, but anytime I hear a composition by him, I take the time to
listen, understand and appreciate the beauty of his work.
It’s
always a great treat to hear an Illayaraja number. to understand the
orchestration, the interludes, the kind of rhythm changes he induces, the kind
of instruments he uses, the pitch for those instruments, the effects for those
instruments and yes, most importantly the use of silence. He is someone who
never leaves any stone unturned and always uses the best resources available.
If there’s no way for a certain effect, he creates a way to get that effect
done. The underlying statement that is visible in all his compositions is that,
his music lifts the visuals on screen, thus combining a powerful visual with
strong background – which ultimately steals or melts the viewer’s heart. For
having composed for over 5000 songs and more, he adds a unique style for every
song, improvising wherever possible, using latest styles for playing, latest
effects (for guitar/drums). Innovation is of prime importance in applications
as these.
All
his orchestrations have so much of life and variety in them. There’s never a
dull moment. He makes his arrangements “talk” to each other like the popular
example found in Punnagai Mannan’s “Enna Satham” or the beautiful “Anjali” (the
title track from his 500th movie). In the former, there are
instruments panned left and right and they play tunes for each instrument, and
somewhere down the line you feel as if one instrument is talking and the other
one listens and then replies. He is one director whose introductions to a song
will give you the starting note of the song right there. You can never go
wrong. All his introductions are the perfect vehicles to start a song. He
always variates some aspect of the song to give a contrast, and he’s probably
one of the many director to use the same tune (to showcase a happy incident)
and use the same song/tune to showcase a sad event. His use of strings/
violins/flutes/piano’s is all top notch. There are innumerable instances where
he has used strings/violins/guitars to create masterpieces that reside in our
hearts. He has also gone to the extent of using effect processors to create
subtle changes in mood. The most famous example is “Ninevellam Nithya” from the
movie “Pani Vishum”, where he has used a flanger with a chorus to create
rolling wave turning effect that is just amazing with the way the guitarist
strums the chords. This effect just underlines the mood of the song, without
the effect there’s an element that would be missing. His knowledge on effects
and how effects color the song is awesome. He has used effects to such an
extent that the wet (effect processed) signals are given their due respect in
his compositions, and have helped in lifting many normal tunes.
He
is also probably the first to realize how a very tone can affect and effect a
scene, like for example, a simple flute. The ability to discern how that same
flute will sound affect a scene positively (when played at a higher octave) and
the same discernment to realize how the same flute piece sounds of terror and
fright (when played at a low octave). Most of his tunes have a
strong piece around which the melody is wrapped around. There’s also another
piece of the melody that strikes us – as listeners. The best part is if we take
out any piece in the tune, the tune becomes incomplete and unstable. The way he
brings the ending of a stanza back to the chorus is just unique. Most of his
songs are either based on strong melodies or are based on strong rhythms, and
he doesn’t stop there, he has variations on for the rhythm forte as well.
He’s
also the first director to use human voices as instruments, the striking
example being “Raja Rajathi Raja” from the block buster “Agni Nakshathiram”.
Illayaraja has himself sung all the tracks and has used part harmonizations to
create a good soundscape. He has also used complete vocals for the second
BGM(Background Music) for the same song. He also has used little children to
sing main tracks and also backing tracks as children unlike adults can take a
much higher vocal range (for powerful expressions) and they’re also sweet
sounding, as when you’d require a bunch of voices for a chorus. Another example
for consideration, is from the movie “Manasellam” where the introduction of the
song (the title track) is complete with children’s voices. The main part
and the backings are children. There is
no instruments, no violins, synths, pads
-nothing at all. Only voices, there’s a main part that sings the melody
and a group of voices in the background providing the harmonization. It’s
awesome firstly because there are no real instruments and secondly because it’s
heartwarming to hear children’s voices, there’s always an instant connect.
His
unending thirst for creating new rhythms, so many variations in timing,
sequence all come together to give the listener one complete package. His music
has been greatly influenced by Western Classical Composers (as far as his
vibrant string/violin combinations), his use of chords and how they affect
moods is also top class. His main strength in a composition is his melody. His
melody is so strong that it just is the perfect doze of musical balm needed for
a scene. On top of this comes his chord arrangements (different variations of
the same chord – such as minors, augmented, diminisheds, 7ths, 6ths,
suspended 6ths, etc). Even the pitches used matter, for example a low pitch
signifies danger, and a high pitch shows happiness. This is more visible in
strings or flutes. At the same time he was also credited for composing a song
with minimal instruments – the song “Kanne Kalaimanae” from the movie Moondram
Pirai. Normally most songs never have
the melody played back, as the singer has the title space, but understanding
the mood and the environment of the scene and story, the melody line for the
song is also heard along with KJ’s voice, and what better instrument to use
than the king of instruments – the one and only violin. It just adds to that
extra feel.
On
a different note, all this orchestration and BGM score hits identifies with one
point in every individual. The viewer, as he watches the visual would have
already lent his/her heart to the scene, character or situation. At this point
when powered by perfect tunes and melody, changes relevant to the scene will
make any viewer latch on to that scene powerfully. Illayaraja has the unique
ability to capture this aspect of the viewer. Many people in this field will
already know (from newspaper reports) that about his powerful score writing
prowess. He just needs to view the scene just once and the score forms in his
mind. Not only that, when he writes the score, everything needed to play that
score is there, as in, pitch, the kind of notation(semibreve, or minims etc),
the expression (dynamics) are all there. All the person has to do is to play
the piece with all sincerity and feel. With so much of precision in composing
and notations, he hardly ever goes wrong.
To
highlight this point, take the example of the song “ Poovae Sem Poovae” from
the movie “Solla Thudikidhu Manasu”, where the first BG and second BG is so
starkly different. All for one basic reason, just to highlight the tension
between the hero (Karthick) and the heroine (Licy). This was all the director
wanted, but look at what a beauty of a score he comes up with in the second BGM
of the song. A pulsating bass line that
forms the base, then comes strings and veena, and then lightning fast tabalas and
a final climax on strings. At this point, even if you close your eyes and just
listen to that BGM, you in your mind would have already started to feel some
tension. That’s the power of his music. He music seems to convey more than
Amin, G#,E-Flats to us, his music opens ways for us to enjoy and relax our
minds. He also makes it a point that his compositions are not to be easily
copied. It’s still tough to play his orchestrations, while on stark
comparisions, music today can be easily copied as there’s a definite approach
to patterns, notes, etc etc.
Even
if his compositions are sequenced, they still lack the finesse of the master.
It’s quite hard to recreate an Illayaraja classic. It’s of prime importance
that we have a person like Illayaraja who had no barriers to his mind, and
having no barriers meant he could improvise and fine tune to a great extent and
that’s one main reason why there’s so much of nuances captured in all of his
notes. It also has a lot to do with technology and infrastructure available.
What makes Illayaraja more prominent and shine so much is the single fact that
he achieved all this orchestration finesse even when there were was no real
technology to support them. He created/bended/amended rules to achieve the
impossible. If you were to look at his scores (one can mentally visualize a
score when he listens to a piece of music), it would be mind boggling,
especially string /violins/ flute arrangements.
Today,
with today’s available technology and infrastructure music and music production
is childs play. Anyone can become a music composer /director. Even if you are
not musically inclined, the software is clever enough to make you hit the right
notes and get the right feel. I, in my personal opinion feel that there is
still so much music left in all of his songs and orchestrations that our ears
cannot hear at first glance, but with every successive listening, we pick up
something else from that song. I have experienced it many times, over many of
his songs. He knows how to present his music in the best possible form, and
this is what has made him a household name through time. His music gives life
to the words of song and that’s what lingers in our hearts forever.
